HAZARD
by TheCrafter
Summary: Jason Jones is a bounty hunter in gotham city. After a mass breakout from arkham asylum, he decides to go after the weakest link, the scarecrow. Little does he know the scarecrow has other plans for both Jason and gotham.
1. Talking to strangers

"yet another mass breakout at arkham asylum has occurred, releasing 16 of the most insane criminals in the world back into gotham city." The news from the radio caused me to have to pull over to get a LONG list of names. My name is Jason Jones and I'm one of the few bounty hunters in gotham city, probably the youngest too, since I'm only 23. I love my job. You get on the good sides of the cops, you make a good name for yourself, and it sure as hell ain't boring. My parents, however, do NOT approve.

Quickly jotting down several names and aliases, I quickly figured out that many of these criminals were going to be out of my league. I carefully double checked the list.

**Jonathan Crane / the Scarecrow**

**Becky Albright / Phobia**

I remember when that news hit the papers. The original story was that Crane brainwashed her to be his partner in crime. then the truth came out about how she took him in to heal after the arkham incident. The one where my cousin damn near ate his ass. Anyway, he apparently washed up at the gotham port, bloody and broken. The only one there was Becky. Don't know why she was there, but she was. After what he did to her, a normal person would just spit on his broken body and leave him to die. Not her thou. She carried that bastard back to her apartment and healed him for the next month. As soon as Crane got better, I guess he offered her the role of his mistress of fear again, and the outcome of that was obvious.

**N/A / Joker**

**Harley Quinzel / Harley Quinn**

**Walton Jones / Killer Croc**

Ah, Waylon was out. I remembered when I first saw the guy. I was looking up super criminals for a school project one time. Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of them had my last name. I met up with him in arkham that weekend, and he seemed pretty surprised that he had any family left. Since then, we've been friends. He's also been a good guy to go to for information. He may look like a berserk killing machine, but the man's got dirt on every crook in gotham. That's also how I know about the events with scarecrow I mentioned earlier.

**Julian Day / Calendar Man**

**Garfield Lynns / the Firefly**

**Jervis Tetch / the Mad Hatter**

**Harvey Dent / Two-Face**

**Pamela Isley / poison Ivy**

A vague Idea involving gasoline, a lighter, and a chainsaw entered my mind. Then I quickly pushed it out, remembering the last time I tried to tackle poison ivy with a stupid plan like that. I tried to take her down with a weed wacker. Needless to say, she didn't like that very much. Yeah, just better to avoid the crazy bitch. heard she holds grudges anyway.

**Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze**

**Victor Zsasz / Mr. Zsasz**

**N/A / Bane**

**Selina Kyle / Catwoman**

**Basil Karlo / Clayface**

**Ozwald Cobblepot / The penguin**

The selection I had was not a good one. Many of them had super powers, mechanical augmentations, or connections to gangs. Then there were the ones which I didn't think I could catch anyway, like Catwoman and Zsasz. That left me with Calendar man, The Mad Hatter, and the scarecrow couple. I've done a bit of research on scarecrow before. I knew he liked to operate in the narrows due to the large amount of homeless people to experiment on.

Since it seemed like the most rational thing to do, I decided to go after scarecrow first, before the bat got to him. The scarecrow had a bounty to fit his extremely high risk to gotham city. That and I heard he was a lousy fighter. If his girlfriend shows up, her bounty wasn't very high, but it would be a nice bonus.

Turning the key in my old chevy, I headed straight to the narrows. I only had three hour to find old stitches and straw before night came. Then I was at a high risk of losing one of the biggest bounties of my life to a man who dresses like a flying rodent. That would not help my slowly growing reputation.

I don't know what I expected to find when I reached the narrows. I expected to only find one screaming hobo, signifying that the scarecrow was close, but as luck has it, they were all suffering from some kind of serious hysteria. I also found a posed corpse in an alleyway, to which prompted me to spend to spend the next two hours searching the streets for delirious homeless in the safety of my truck.

When the streetlights came on, I pulled over to stretch my legs. I got out, quickly pulling my hood over my head before lighting a smoke. The flame danced in the early October breeze as it lit the cigarette. I was frustrated with my lack of progress. Maybe I should just search a different part of the city. Suddenly a voice came from the shadows. "you don't look like you belong here."

I turned, gripping my revolver. There was a man standing next to me in the streetlight. How he got there without me noticing I'll never know. He was about 6'0, He wore a long duster and a cowboy hat, which cast shadows that hid his face. I kept my hand on my revolver, eyeing him for any weapons "Funny, you don't look like you really belong either." I said, puffing out a cloud of smoke.

"What would someone like you be doing down in such a broken down part of the city?" The man asked. A tone of suspicion was in his voice.

"Well, you heard of the mass breakout at arkham, right?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, I'm trying to find a couple of the psychos that escaped. Scarecrow and phobia. I heard that the operated around this area, so I've search around for the last three hours for them. Found nothing, of course. Such is my luck. I did, however, find a posed corpse. That would mean Zsasz is in the area to."

I took a long draw on my cigarette. "You know…" the man said, pointing down the street."I did see a rather odd fellow with a witches hat shamble that way down the street about 15 minutes ago. he was very slim as well. Could that be the man you're looking for?"

I looked up at him, dropping my cigarette to the pavement. I quickly smothered it with the heel of my boot. "Well, thanks man." I sighed, pulling out my revolver. "You may have just made my next payday."

No sooner did I finish That sentence I got sprayed in the face with an aerosol can. I dropped to the pavement, coughing and feeling faint."Word of advice, boy…" The man said through his poorly stitched burlap mask "You really shouldn't talk to strangers."

My vision was blurring fast, and before I knew it, I was out.


	2. who sent you?

I woke slowly. My whole body ached and my eyelids felt like they had weights on them. I was tied to a chair by leather restraints holding my arms, legs, and body in place. The room was pitch black, but I could tell we were probably in a building in the narrows from the moldy smell.

The light bulb above me flickered on, blinding me for a few seconds. Now I could see that I was in what looked like an old hospital room. The age was shown via the tiles missing from the floor, the rusted wheelchairs and beds piled on one side of the room, and the mold growing on the wall. Speaking of the wall, it had an unnatural amount of bloodstains on it. The floor was even worse. I imagine the tiles used to be white, but now they were too stained for me to tell.

A door opened behind me, followed by the sound of footsteps. Then the chair I was restrained in spun around and I was facing my captor. His mask was held in place by a nose and he wore a wide brimmed witch's hat with his patched up duster. Underneath this he wore the top part of his prison outfit and a pair of pants that looked like they were made from several different pants all sewn together. "So this is the al-mighty scarecrow." I laughed, despite being totally unnerved at his mask. "Got to say, I imagined you being shorter."

"Who sent you?" Crane growled

"Come again?"

"Who sent you?" Crane repeated with a tone of anger in his voice." The cops? The mafia? The bat? It's not that hard of a question, even for some grunt like you."

"No one sent me." I said "I'm a bounty hunter. I was just looking for you because of the price on your head."

"Why is it I don't believe you?"

"The hell if I know. Daddy issues?"

"I could just gas you right now and watch you slowly die. You know that, right?"

"If you were going to kill me, you would have done it already."

Scarecrow chuckled a bit under his breath before returning his attention to me. "Says who? This is an interrogation, but that does not mean I'll let you leave here unless you're in a body bag. After all, I can't have anyone know where I' hiding can I?"

Ah crap, I was in some deep shit now. "Besides, I have big plans for gotham, and you're going to help me."

"No way in HELL am I helping some homicidal maniac."

"You forget, boy." He said, pointing my revolver at my head "you don't have a choice."

I backed down. Getting my brain sprayed all over the wall wasn't the answer to getting out of this god forsaken shit-hole. Maybe the help he was thinking of would get me out of here.

"Fine what kind of help do you need from me?"

He smiled through his mask. "That's better. It's always nice to have volunteers." He said smugly, removing the revolver from my forehead. "As for the nature of the assistance you will be offering me, you're going to be my human guinea pig."

Well, there goes the escape plan.

Scarecrow moved to the side, revealing a desk with several beakers and vials. In truth, it looked like a chemistry set from a mad scientist's lab. how appropriate. He moved behind the desk and started to mess with the vials. "do you know what this is?" he asked, holding out a glowing green liquid.

"No, I can't say I do." I replied

"you should. Do you remember when the inmates took control of arkham asylum?" He said, mixing the green liquid with purple one."Well, it was all because of this little chemical. It has a long, unpronounceable name, so for your sake, we'll just use the name that the media used. This chemical is called TITAN."

"Doesn't that stuff disfigure who ever uses it? I mean, it does give you a temporary boost of strength, but from what I heard, the people who changed back had damn near all their bones broken!"

"I know, which is why I'm developing a new strain. More powerful than the joker's strain, but without all those nasty side-effects. After all, whats better than god like powers with no risk?"

"So you're going to test some entirely unknown compound on me?"

"Its not entirely unknown. I had about 20 test subjects before you, each better than the last. I'm convinced that you will be the last, then I will able to proceed with my plan."

"what kind of plan are you talking about?"

He looked up from his chemicals. His smile was easy to see through his mask."why, the plan to destroy the bat, the joker, and the entire city of gotham." He laughed."what else?"

"So you're going to waste all of gotham with just a little of this TITAN stuff?" I laughed "You must be insane."

He smirked, grabbing a needle and filling it with a yellow chemical. "there's a reason no one ever accused me of being sane." Scarecrow said as he walked around the table with the needle."Do you know why that is?"

"Because you're not?"

"Precisely."

He injected the needle into my arm, and it released it toxic payload. As soon as it was removed, a blinding pain spread from my arm over my entire body. The pain was unbearable. I screamed in pain until I couldn't even feel my lungs. But over it all, I could hear that sadistic bastard laughing. then, for the second time that day, I ended up blacking out.


	3. Shit gets real

For the second time that day, came to in a strange place. My head felt like it had been split with a pickaxe. My right arm was still hurting from where the TITAN strain was injected. Still, it was in no way hurting when it was first injected. On another positive note, I was no longer restrained. I was, however, locked in a dirty cell lying on a filthy mattress. Joy.

Groaning, I got up. The only light in the room was a single flickering lightbulb. This provided very little light, but I could see that other than the cell wall, which was all bars, the rest of the walls were dirt. Hell, even the ceiling and floor were just dirt. There were even roots sticking out of the ceiling. What was with Scarecrow and dirty places? First a bloody hospital, then an underground cell. Whats next, a fucking haunted mansion?

On second thought, that would be an improvement.

"Hello, guinea pig" Scarecrow said via the loudspeaker outside my cell.

I looked up. What the hell did this human matchstick want now?

"You will now partake in a colosseum match against the most deadly thugs the gotham underworld has to offer.' He continued. 'And by the most deadly, I mean whatever men were open to being severely wounded by genetic mutations of my creation for money."

"No way am I fighting for your sick pleasure, asshat." I mumbled under my breath.

"Oh, but you don't have a choice, boy.' He said. 'If you don't fight, then I just flood the chamber with fear gas and you die being killed by whatever it is you fear. Horrible way to die, isn't it?"

The cell wall made a loud clanging noise, making me jump. It rose into the ceiling, clearing the way. I only saw a long dark hallway, what did he...

"I suppose I should open the colosseum doors, huh?"

At the end of the hallway, a wall slowly lowered, and light poured into the chamber. I walked down the hallway cautiously, not sure of what was going to be at the end. The bright light was blinding, was it the sun?

I stepped out of the tunnel and let my eyes adjust. To my disappointment, I was not outside, just in a colosseum of some sort. I was still underground, but this room was lit by VERY bright lights, which where hanging from the ceiling. They were heating the room as well it seemed, It felt like it was 85 degrees in there. I rolled up the sleeves of my hoodie and put up my hood. This way, I could keep cool and keep the damn lights from blinding me.

"Hello my hired murderers, psychos, and violent hobos. I have a new experiment for you tonight.' The scarecrow said through the loudspeakers on the walls. ' This will probably be your last battle under my employment. This should be the most powerful subject you've faced yet. Due to this, let's just call him hazard, as he will probably kill you or leave you on the floor, broken, and breathing through fractured ribs. Heh heh, HAVE FUN!"

A wall opened up on the opposite side of the arena, releasing about 10 huge guys into the arena. They all wore bright orange prison outfits, except for one, who was shirtless. He also had two knives and tally marks all over his body.

Wait a minute...

"Ah, crap." I mumbled to myself

"The hell are you guys doing!' Crane screamed through the loudspeakers. 'KICK HIS ASS!"

They yelled and started charging at me. Instinctively, I reached for my revolver, which was of course in the hands of scarecrow at the moment. I figured that out just in time to dodge a few swipes from Zsasz.

"I will cut into you, piggy.' He laughed 'First you, than the batman."

"back off, creep ass!" I yelled

One guy tried to punch me while I was yelling at Zsasz. With superhuman reflexes, I caught his fist and started squeezing. I heard heard a violent snap, and the thug fell on the ground, gripping his hand and screaming. The rest of them, including Zsasz. Looked from me to their buddy crying on the floor.

No way was I that strong or that fast before.

"I literally just told you cretins that I want you to beat the living shit out of this boy.' Scarecrow scolded thought the speakers. 'why is that not happening. Are you too stupid to follow orders, or do I need to release round 2 early?"

Oh boy, did that get their asses moving.

Dodging their blows was shockingly easy. It felt like they were all going in slow motion. One guy grabbed me from behind, restraining my arms and lifting me into the air. "Get him guys!" The henchman ordered.

Two guys charged at me. I kicked them both in the face, toppling my captor over backwards. When he hit the ground, I heard a nasty crunching noise, and his his grip gave way. I jumped back to avoid being crowded.

"Two down, eight to go.' I taunted at the remaining thugs.'The only question: Who's next?"

Damn, I feel like a badass.

About 50 seconds later, they were all unconscious, groaning on the floor, or like in Zsasz's case, suffering from part of their face being smeared on the wall. "What are you fools DOING!" Scarecrow raged through the loudspeakers. "You are all going to die of fear when I get my hand on you! However, for now, I will focus on YOU, Jason."

"Was I not dubbed Hazard 3 minutes ago, or was that a hallucination?" I said sarcastically.

"SILENCE!' He screamed. 'No one speaks to the master of fear like that! I will teach you some respect, boy. I hope you're ready for some pain, because you've certainly earned it."

A huge part of the wall started sinking on the far side of the cavern. As it sunk, the earth slowly started rocking. It was gentle at first, but became noticeably as whatever I was going to fight next made its way toward the arena.

"Hazard, I want you to meet someone special. Can you guess who he is?' Crane said through the speakers. 'I'll give you a hint. He weighs 550 pounds, stands 7 feet high, and is the only man to break the Batman. Can you guess who it is?"

"You can't mean..."

"Yes. Meet the one, the only, BANE."

The massive man stomped out into the light, and DAMN was he big. He had tubes going in and out of his body, pumping a green liquid into him. His face was covered by a metal mask, which only showed his mouth and eyes. His backpack hummed, pumping more of the drug into his system. It also looked like it was heavy as hell, because it caused him to hunch over.

"Aw, damn.' I said to myself. 'Shit just got real."


	4. Bane of the arena

I was scared shitless. Before me was the man who broke the batman. The goddamn batman! How was I getting out of this one?

"Well, Hazard, I hope you don't have Agliophobia. Because you're about to..."

"Honey!' A feminine voice said in the background. 'Dinner's ready!"

"Oh.' He said. An awkward silence followed.

"Um...I'll be right back.' He said. Shuffling could be heard. "Oh, and Bane? Do your thing. Don't worry about me missing anything. I'm recording this fool's pain and suffering anyway."

Then he was gone. Just me and Bane. Despite being pretty much terrified, I just said the first thing that came to my mind.

"So uh...nice mask.' I stuttered. 'Very lucha libre"

Ignoring this comment, he looked around the ring at the various unconscious bodies, crying henchmen, and Zsasz, then back to me. "You beat these men?" He asked. He had a heavy mexican accent.

"Oh, these guys?' I said, motioning to them.'**_Sí_**"

He glared at me."You should not mock the man with the ability to kill you. These men are **_los insectos_ **compared to me. What is your name, boy? I don't like to kill people without knowing their identities first."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is this how you usually ask for people's names, Or am I a special case?' I said sarcastically. 'The name's Jason Jones, but you can call me Hazard."

He laughed "Family of the croc? I remember when I fought him.' He said. 'He did not last long, I broke both his arms."

"You know, I was wondering who did that. He would never tell me.' I said, he was starting to piss me off. 'One question. Are you only talking to me because you're afraid of getting your ass kicked? Fight a giant mutant crocodile, but as soon as you meet his cousin you're scared shitless."

He was pissed now. he pressed a button on his wrist and green liquid flowed from the thing on his back into him. I could see his veins glowing with the stuff. "How dare you say that! I AM BANE! the Bane of all that lives!' He screamed in rage, pointing at me. 'The **_médico brujo _**will have your CORPSE!"

"Whats with the spanish?' I said sarcastically. At this point I wanted to see how mad I could get him. 'English or **_E_****_spañol_**, pick one and stick with it!"

Finally, he charged. "_**Te rompen, Hazard!**_"

I flipped out of the way and he crashed into a VERY hard stone wall. Dodging a frickin gorilla was MUCH easier than evading a crowd of guys. That's all well and good for defense, but what about offense?

"**_Evadir esta!" _**He yelled, throwing a chunk of rock at me. Only dodged it by millimeters. If he kept this up, the cavern might cave in on us. I had to finish him fast. How the hell would I do that?

He ran at me, swinging wildly. He hit me, and I flew against the far side of the wall. He laughed at me. "_**Mi veneno que me mantiene fuerte Hazard, a diferencia de **__**usted**_.' He spoke '**_Sólo se puede ejecutar y esperar a que yo termine_**."

My side exploded with a stabbing pain, meaning he must have broke one of my ribs. The pain in my lungs now made it hard to breath without it hurting like hell. Bane looked at me and laughed. I wasn't going to give that bastard the satisfaction of seeing me down with one blow.

"Hey asshole.' I said, picking myself up off the floor slowly.'I you're going to insult me, at least say it in a language I can fucking understand."

Through his mask, he grinned wildly. "What is wrong, little **_conejo?_**Did I make you mad, or did I break something I shouldn't have?"

He walked slowly toward me, the earth shaking with each step. "As I said, my venom keeps me strong. Where is your power now, **_conejo_**?

His venom was his power. How could I have forgotten that? All I have to do is cut the tubes and I'll be set! But how do I do that with a broken rib?

Wait, breathing didn't hurt anymore. Could that mean...

Bane stood above me, casting a large black shadow over me. "Even the **_cocodrilo_** lasted longer than you.' His voice sounded disappointed, as if he expected more from the cousin of a super-criminal, even if I was only human. 'Any last words before I kill you?"

I smirked "Well, how many words do I get?"

"You still struggle, even when broken and seconds before death." He said, raising his fists into the air. "Admirable, but pointless."

I dived beneath his legs just as his fists hit the ground, shaking the whole cavern. I jumped onto his back and tries to break the tubes injecting the venom, but failed. If I had claws or a knife of some sort I'd be able to get the job done. He grabbed me and threw me off his back. This time, I was ready enough to bounce off the wall with my feet and roll instead of re-breaking my rib.

Bane spun around and, surprisingly, looked first horrified, then just pisses again. "**_Conejo_**, what trickery is this? Are you a human or **demonio.**'

He said, cracking his fists.'No matter, I shall break you either way."

The hell was he talking about?

I looked at my hands and was shocked to see my fingers have turned to long blades. My clothes even changed color, from a light blue to a pitch black. There was some emblem on the front of the hoodie too, but I'd have to look later.

"Go back to hell where you belong, _**DEMONIO**_!" Bane said, rapidly swinging at me again. It was even easier to evade him now than earlier. He was either getting slower, or I was a hell of a lot faster. He punched the ground again, leaving him open for me to jump onto his back. This time, I just went completely apeshit on anything glowing green.

Bane grabbed me and pinned me against the ground with one arm. "You are no Batman, you are NOTHING!" He raised his fist into the air, but was stopped by an annoying beeping noise.

He gripped his head and started screaming. Then he started shrinking before my eyes. His backpack slipped off, and then his gauntlet. When it was all over, he was a shivering shrimp in a metal mask. I got up, retracted my claws, and grabbed him by the throat.

slamming him against a wall, I ripped off his mask. This is when he started ranting. "NO! This cannot be! A mere man cannot defeat BANE!"

"I am not any mere man.' I said, my voice was surprising scratchy and scary. 'I am HAZARD."

I then proceeded to head-butt him so hard it made ME see stars.

I slung his unconscious body over my shoulder and grabbed his mask. If they didn't need it as proof, I can sure as hell keep it as a cool-ass personal trophy.

I went out the way bane stomped in, and sure enough, there was an elevator. I pressed the button, and the elevator opened with a loud ding. The inside of it was carpet and steel, and it had a television. It only had two floors, so I just pressed the 1 button. As the elevator rose, the television turned on, revealing Scarecrows masked face. He was NOT happy.

"your persistence is starting to annoy me, boy. First you take out 9 of my guys, smear Zsasz against the wall, and then break Bane! Are you deliberately trying to hinder my plans!' He yelled through the television. 'I just hope you know that now it's WAR."

"Really, It wasn't war when you tried to kill me using henchmen. I thought it was.' I said as the elevator stopped, emitting a loud ding again. 'Before I leave, I'd like to have you know that I WILL find you, and then I'll return you to arkham myself."

"I doubt that besid...' He didn't have the time to finish before I broke the television with Bane's mask.

The door opened up into a barn. How typical, a most classic Scarecrow move. I moved over to the big doors and kick them open. Outside, a whole fleet of cars were park, and right in front was my green chevy. I smiled, what a stroke of luck! One of those assholes must have used it to get here. The car was even unlocked with the keys in the ignition!

I dumped Bane in the backseat. Then I pulled down the mirror. What I saw shocked me. My face had mutated and looked as if it were only bone. My teeth were pointed and I had red slits for eyes. "Holy shit..."

I rapidly pulled off my hood. Looking in the mirror, I was normal again. I touched my face to make sure there was still skin there and to check if my mind wasn't playing playing tricks on me. Luckily, it wasn't.

I sat back in my seat. I honestly wanted to call it a night right then and there, but I couldn't. I needed to get Bane to the GCPD before deciding to sleep, otherwise he may escape, killing me in the process. I turned the key and the engine roared to life. Pulling out, I headed towards the bright lights of the city, the sun just peeking up over the horizon.

**_Finally making use of that M rating, huh? Longest chapter yet! Feel free to review. For those of you that didn't like Bane speaking spanish, or the spanish in a text that's labeled "english", you don't have to worry. Although it was cool writing in another language other than english, there is no way I'm doing that again. To much hassle with the spanish to english dictionary. (That, and I don't know any other batman villains that speak another language._**


	5. Riddle me this

I pulled up to GCPD building. I checked Bane again, and he was unconscious. He had woken up on the way there, so I had to knock him out again by smashing his head on the center console. I heard a nasty crack when I did it, meaning I broke his nose or I needed to change out a couple of parts.

I dragged him up to the front door by his arm and kicked open the door. This got me a lot of weird looks and even some pistols pointed at me. I ignored them, I was not in the mood to be stopped by some overly-paranoid cops. On second thought, I did just kick down the frickin GCPD's door. Also while holding an unconscious man who looked like he had been through a meat grinder.

I pulled Bane across the floor to the secretary's desk. I pulled him up to the window, clearly showing his face. The girl on the other side of the glass was wide eyed, looking from me to Bane. "Hello miss, can I turn in Mr. Bane here?" I said through the glass.

She looked away and walked to a back room. After a few minutes she returned with a folder labeled "BANE". She opened it up, grabbing a picture of his face for comparison. "Okay sir, we have a match.' She said, putting the files away. 'Please give the suspect to the officers and sit in the waiting area."

A couple of guys came out of a door to my left and took Bane into the holding area. I sighed. I forgot how long it took for these things to go through. Sometimes you had to wait hours before they gave you the check. I sat down in one of the chairs and put my hood up. Maybe I could get some sleep before they called me up. Just as I was falling asleep, someone tapped me on the shoulder. "You brought down Bane?" A male voice asked.

I looked up and saw a man wearing a green suit, purple sunglasses, a bowler hat and a cane. He had an inquisitive look on his face. "Are you even listening to me?' He complained 'Hello? Mister hood? Are you still awake?"

I sat up straight. "Sir, I've had a hell of a night.' I said, rubbing my face. 'Can't you let me catch a few z's?"

He sighed, adjusting his glasses. "Evidently you've had a rough night. You look like a stray breeze could knock you over.' He said. 'perhaps you will be so kind as to contact me later then?"

I glared at him "Will it get you to leave me alone?" I asked

"Certainly! here's my card.' He said, putting a business card into my hoodie pocket. 'I do hope we'll be in touch."

I watched him as he strolled out the door. He seemed familiar somehow. Had I seen him before? My brain didn't have the brain power to think of it at the time. I slowly drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up, there was a police officer shacking me awake. The secretary was ready for me. Yawning, I walked up to the glass. She gave me a check through the glass, and I got to say, there were quite a few zeros. I found out later that bane was a part of the secret six, thus raising his bounty exponentially. At that moment, I was just happy to get out of there.

I walked out and looked up. The day looked dreary, and it was probably going to rain for the whole day again. Opening my chevy, I remembered the card that that guy had given me. I took it out and studied it. On one side, it had a phone number in the shape of a green question mark. The number was (309)323-90. The phone number was missing two numbers. On the back there was a riddle. "**WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND I?"** It said in big green letters.

How had I not recognized that the guy was the Riddler I'll never know. Who else wears a green suit?

Okay, the last two letters were obviously the answer to the riddle, but what did I know about Riddler that would be the answer. Height, weight, age? I had no knowledge of the guy, not statistically. This was a business card though, so it couldn't be anything to complicated, and it would have to be the same for each person. That means that it can't be weight, hight, or age.

God, I hate riddles.

Wait, I and U. The letters maybe? what was the difference between U and I? 11 letters. I smiled, writing down the complete number under the riddle on the back. (309)323-9011. I had heard that the riddler was reformed, but apparently part of his persona must have stuck. Maybe ha could help me figure out what the Scarecrow's plan for gotham was? Worth a shot. After all, the man WAS a genius from what I read on his psych profile, but conceded as HELL.

I started up the car. I'd call him as soon as I find a pay-phone. Then we could look into Crane's little plan.

I pulled over at a Wawa and went straight to the phone. I popped in a quarter and quickly dialed the number. I was answered by a female voice. "Nygma investigators, how may I help you?"

"Hello, may I speak to Mr. Nygma?" I asked

She sighed. "Did he give you a riddle? He only talks to people who receive and solve his riddles. Everyone else needs to talk to me."

"Why's that?"

"Keeps the reporters away, now did he give you a riddle or not?"

"Um, yeah. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND I? The answer is 11 letters."

"I'm switching you to his line now, sir." she said.

After a second or two, another voice answered me. "Hello?' Riddler awnsered 'Who is this?"

"It's the guy who took down Bane."

"Oh! Nice to hear from you sir. Ready to spill the beans on how that went down, hmm?"

"More than that. I may actually require your services."

"Oh really? How so?"

"You'll see. Where's your office?"

"On the corner of 11th and green street."

"Just like the card?"

"Exactly."

* * *

><p>His business, from the outside, only looked like a run down building. On the inside however, it was a very neat environment. There was a bookshelf in the waiting area and the walls and ceiling were wood. There was a green carpet with black question marks covering the floor.<p>

I walked up to the front desk, where an elderly woman greeted me. Well, not as much greeted as glared at me. "I'm here to see Mr. Nygma."

She pointed to the door to the left. "Go up the stairs and his office is the one on the opposite end of the room."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Take your hood of while you're inside. It's rude."

Taking my hood off, I climbed up the stairs. The top floor was much of the same as the ground floor, but with cubicles. There were only a few people occupying them, but a lot of the cubicles had stuff hanging in them, meaning either most of the people weren't here yet, or were out investigating something or other. On the opposite side of the room was a wooden door with a big green question mark spray painted on it. "Yup' I thought to myself. 'That's his office."

Opening the door, I saw what looked like a lawyers office. All the furniture in there was made of stained wood and held an old-world design. There were two bookshelves on either side of the room, a few filing cabinets and a double screened computer on the large desk. There was a simple wooden chair on one side of the desk, and a larger cushioned on on the other.

But the Riddler was no-where to be seen.

A shuffling noise came from under the desk, startling me for a second. "Uh, Riddler?' I said cautiously looking over the computer screens to the other side of the desk.'Is that you?"

His head popped up from under the desk. "What is it?"

"What the hell were you doing under the desk?"

"Trying to fix some hardware." He said, fixing his hat and standing up. "Who are you?"

"I'm the guy that dragged Bane into GCPD at 1 o'clock this morning"

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you without your hood on."

"Funny."

"Please take a seat." He said, motioning to the seat.

I pulled the chair up to the desk and sat down. "Riddle me this.' Riddler said, smiling on the other side of his desk.'How did Bane fall?"

"Will you believe me?"

"Sir, with all due respect, I have seen some crazy things in my day. I'll believe you."

"Alright..."

I told him everything. The search for Scarecrow, the injection, the arena, everything. At the end of it all, he was sitting back in his chair in deep thought. "It seems like Johnny's planning something big. This is strange. He was always the one to follow some other rouge in big plans like this. Even when he did do something on his own he never did it on such a massive scale."

"You see why I need your help? I can't do this without some brains. The kind of which I don't have.' I said. 'I'm good at fighting an all, but I can't hack computers or any of the stuff experts can do."

"Your flattery is amusing, but this is a little out of my jurisdiction.' He sighed 'Shouldn't you be going to the police for this?"

"Do you think that the police are going to believe a bounty hunter? Much less the one that used a weed wacker on poison Ivy?"

Riddler looked at me for a second, then started laughing."That was you?"

I gave him a glare that rivaled the Batman's

"Besides.' I continued 'The police will be to tied up with all the inmates out on the street to do anything about it."

"What about the Batman?"

"Do I look like I have a superhero on speed-dial?"

"I wouldn't think so, due to the fact you called on a pay-phone instead of a mobile one."

I stared at him "How do you know that?"

"Caller ID" He smirked

"Figures.' I sighed. 'Are you in or not?"

he smiled, looking down at me. "I'm in. I'm intrigued by your little situation. While I would like to help you, I would also like to get paid."

"How about this.' I said, getting out of the chair. 'I'll give you a cut of the bounties I collect when I round up the Scarecrow's henchmen. How's 45% sound?"

Riddler stood up and held his hand out. "Deal."

I shook his hand, and as I did, he spoke. "Riddle me this, what advantage do we have over the rouge's gallery in gotham?"

"What?"

"They'll never see you coming. Now let's head over to that barn you were kept in. I'd like to have a look around it."


End file.
